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The Overnight Defense
On December 15, 1603, The Enemy brought his army of puppets and monsters to attack the city of Cordoire during Duilintinn's annual Winter Celebrations. The Watch defended the city for the entire night, forcing The Enemy's forces to retreat back into the Western Forest in the morning. This battle would officially be named the Battle for Cordoire, but almost everyone in Duilintinn refers to it simply as the Overnight Defense. Timeline of Events In January 1603, The Watch began accepting its first members and found itself almost overwhelmed with volunteers. With an enthusiasm that surprised even King Sean himself, Watchers quickly organized themselves into dozens of self-directed teams, which began searching aggressively for any signs of The Enemy, conducting research on his strange magic, and patrolling Duilintinn's borders. After several months of largely successful trial and error, The Watch's efforts began to produce results in August 1603, when multiple signs of The Enemy's magic were discovered and border patrols won several skirmishes against hostile puppets and monsters that roamed too close to the forest edge. While the sudden increase in such incidents was attributed to The Watch finally "hitting its stride," so to speak, the reality was far less optimistic. In truth, The Enemy was mobilizing an army of puppets and monsters in the Western Forest, preparing to strike against King Sean and his new army of upstarts when they least anticipated it. This opportunity came on December 15, 1603, during the kingdom-wide Winter Celebrations in Cordoire. The Watch, anticipating a repeat of the first and second attempts on the king's life, surrounded the city with patrols, filled the crowds with mages on the lookout for any sign of The Enemy's magic, and stationed raven handlers and messengers at nearly every corner. However, instead of a stealthy assassination attempt, The Enemy marched an army of puppets and monsters from the northwestern edge of the Western Forest, through the sleet-covered fields of House Brody, and attacking Cordoire from the northwest, near the border between House Brody and House Jackie. Despite being completely unprepared to defend the city from hoards of puppets and monsters on a massive snowy battlefield, The Watch reacted incredibly quickly to The Enemy's attack, in large part thanks to the flurry of communication facilitated by messengers within the city and without. By the time the first wave of The Enemy's hoards reached the city, hundreds of Watchers were lined up in defensive positions to greet them. Hours of fighting ensued, lasting long into the night. Just before dawn, after hours of breaking themselves upon the steadfast defenses of The Watch, The Enemy and his forces were forced to retreat in the same direction they had approached the city. Significance Despite successfully defending the city of Cordoire, The Watch officially considers the Overnight Defense to have ended in a stalemate. Over a decade's worth of research, analysis, and general hindsight have made it clear that taking the capital was only one of The Enemy's goals that night. While no one knows with absolute certainty how many plans The Enemy set in motion that day, nor how many succeeded, we are aware of at least two. First, during the battle, The Enemy cemented his power in the minds of the people by inflicting the Influence Curse upon thousands of citizens and Watchers throughout Duilintinn. It's unclear how The Enemy managed to target citizens in all four corners of Duilintinn, especially in regions far from his army's path, but most theories agree that the attack upon Cordoire was, at least in part, a distraction, allowing stealthier operations to take place without detection. Second, The Enemy also used the chaos and carnage of the battle to take hundreds of Watchers, either as corpses or prisoners, to bolster his ranks of puppets. While many of the dead were accounted for and given proper burials after the battle, many who fought that day had seemingly vanished, never to be seen again. That is until their faces were tragically recognized on the reanimated corpses or helpless puppets that returned to do The Enemy's bidding in the First and Second War of The Watch. Despite these blows, the successful defense of Cordoire was not insignificant. Since the Overnight Defense, The Enemy has never again attempted a direct assault upon a major city in Duilintinn. Instead, his tactics have shifted to favor sudden, ambush-like attacks upon isolated settlements or outposts, which end almost as quickly as they begin. Which these raids consistently cause widespread tensions and fear among Duilintinn's people, more sieges upon Duilintinn's most well-known and vital urban centers (especially if some of them were successful) could have brought the young kingdom to ruin almost overnight. Indeed, if The Enemy had successfully taken Cordoire, it's unlikely that Duilintinn as we know it would still exist today. Historians disagree on when exactly the First War of The Watch began, but many point to the Overnight Defense as the inciting event. Others claim that the battle should be considered part of the build-up to the First War of The Watch, due to how significantly it differs from the merciless raids upon small, defenseless towns that defined this period of conflict. Regardless of the specific interpretation of its significance, the Overnight Defense was a critical turning point in the overarching war between Duilintinn and The Enemy, one that would usher in over a decade of conflict that continues to this day (as of February 1615). See Also * Gone are the Lords: A song written in 1604 about the Overnight Defense